It was November 1957, outside Plainfield, Wisconsin, when the
police arrested Ed Gein. Inside his kitchen was a bountiful meal of
pork chops; macaroni and cheese; pickles; coffee; cookies--and,
simmering in a saucepan on the stove, a human heart.

Inside his house, the police made other grisly
discoveries--including a box of noses, skulls on the posts of his
bed and a headless corpse. The only room that appeared normal, save
for the coat of dust, was that of Gein's long-dead mother. If
any of this rings a bell, it's because Gein was the real-life
inspiration for Robert Bloch's novel, Psycho, which
became one of Alfred Hitchcock's film masterpieces.

America has long had a gruesome sense of humor, so maybe
that's why "serial entrepreneur," a riff off serial
killer, is the term often used to describe entrepreneurs who own
multiple companies in their lifetimes. It's hardly a crime, but
there does seem to be a growing number of entrepreneurs who stalk a
trend, create a business from it and then, when it's
flourishing, kill it (by selling or dissolving). Some serial
entrepreneurs can't get rid of their company--it's their
baby--but they want a growing family, so they hire managers to run
the daily operations while they give birth to a new business.

Either way, serial entrepreneurs exist because they need a new
challenge with every venture, says Andrew Zacharakis, an assistant
professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, which
boasts one of the finest entrepreneurial departments in the
country. To be a serial entrepreneur, says Zacharakis, "You
need to have incredible passion for the start-up process and for
the industry your start-up is in, and incredible energy--all the
attributes you'd normally associate with excellent
entrepreneurs."

But serial entrepreneurship has its dark side. "You have to
give up control of a venture that's been your baby and see
somebody else take it over," warns Zacharakis. Ominous
background music, please. "They may make decisions you
don't agree with. The real downside is seeing others destroy
something you bled over and tried to transform from a baby into a
beautiful child."

Of course, you may just sell your infant corporation for $5
million. Or $50 mil. And you just might get over that downside.

Geoff Williams is a serial Entrepreneur writer, having
written numerous articles for this magazine, and has written
for Life and Ladies Home Journal. He's also a
features reporter for The Cincinnati Post.

Warning! Serial Entrepreneur At Large

Name: Alan Rothenberg

Companies started so far: 6

Age: 36

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 161 lbs.

Hair color/eye color: brown/brown

Distinguishing characteristics: Always wears black,
doesn't wear socks, and is often seen with a cell phone and
yo-yo

Last seen: Traveling by airplane

Rothenberg's first company was unlikely to ever offer
shareholding options: He started a carpooling service in high
school, driving 11 kids to and from school, charging parents $10
per child, per week. Sixteen months later, he had enough money to
buy a new car. You'll find that common among serial
entrepreneurs, suggests Rothenberg, who explains: "Usually we
find a need of our own, and we try to fill it."

Rothenberg himself is a sparkling example. By the time he
reached college, he was keenly interested in stereos. So he sold
cassette tapes and stereo equipment to his fellow students,
ultimately becoming the second-largest distributor of Maxell tapes
in Massachusetts. "They were the hottest tapes at the time but
not anymore," laments Rothenberg, who had five employees and
earned $6,000 per week by the time he closed shop.

Before finishing college, he was importing exotic cars from
Europe at a20 percent savings and then selling them to U.S. buyers.
"Again, no inventory," he reveals wryly. Rothenberg's
business only lasted six months but garnered $120,000 and needed
two extra workers. But soon another venture caught his eye: a
contemporary art gallery.

After graduating college, Rothenberg opened his gallery in
Boston in 1986. By the time he closed it to move on to other things
in 1993, he had 10 employees and was earning $4 million a year.

While the art gallery was thriving, Rothenberg dabbled in a
technology research and development company, Light Age Technology,
circa 1989. Based in Waitsfield, Vermont, the company had taken in
less than $1 million when he sold most of it (he still owns 10
percent).

Later, in 1995, Rothenbergco-founded KinderActive, a CD-ROM
publishing company that generated several million dollars a year in
sales. At the same time, he was tooling around with JuniorNet, a
firm in Boston that opened to the public almost a year ago. The
success of this venture remains to be seen, but one of the major
partners is Highlights for Children magazine, and Rothenberg wants
this advertising-free children's service-content provider
(http://www.juniornet.com)
to be on par with the Walt Disney Co.

And if JuniorNet reaches Disney's heights, would you expect
Rothenberg to hand over the reins to somebody else? Of course.
"I don't see myself just managing a large
corporation," he says.

But wait a second, kids--don't rush to try this at home.
Rothenberg warns that the career of serial entrepreneur is a risky
one--which is part of the appeal. "There is the rush and
danger at the same time," he notes, "and each time I
start a new entity, I take a substantial amount of my cash
reserves, or net worth, and put it into something completely
untested and unproven. For some families, that can tear them
apart."

Then in the next breath, Rothenberg, who is married and has
three young children, offers this dare: "For some individuals,
the loss of sleep at night and thinking about things--well, living
and breathing this environment--can be pretty scary. But the true
entrepreneur really looks forward to
it . . . and excels during those
times."

Not that his previous three companies were a wash. The Baltimore
resident began Envision Designs, an architectural visualization
company, when he was studying at Johns Hopkins University in 1991.
The company created 3-D animated models of architectural plans and
was marketed to small architectural firms, which couldn't
afford him, so Wooten soon dissolved his company.

Next, he co-founded, with a friend, Soft Ideas Corp. in
Columbia, Maryland, in 1995, which developed one database software
application. After the initial phase, Wooten bowed out and Soft
Ideas was dissolved a year later.

Wooten says he isn't a serial entrepreneur just because he
likes starting new companies, but because his philosophy is about
constantly searching for the right idea at the right time.

Leo B. Helzel, a former serial entrepreneur who co-founded Haas
School's entrepreneurship program at University of California,
Berkeley, 30 years ago, echoes Wooten's sentiment: "Most
entrepreneurial students are looking for the one deal that's
their dream. But if it's a failure, they'll be onto
something else. As far as going back to work for Procter &
Gamble or Citibank, that's not in their vocabulary."

Wooten, whose company has 17 employees and expects millions in
sales this year, may continue his serial career. "I'm an
entrepreneur," he says. "I don't know if I'm
going to like running a public company."

Warning! Serial Entrepreneur At Large

Distinguishing characteristic: Thinning on top due to
"years of worrying about the wrong things"

Last seen: Sailing out of Nantucket Harbor, cell phone in
hand, his PR rep says--but when could he possibly have time to
sail?

"I feel more comfortable starting companies where I can
relate to the product because I'm a consumer and a
customer," says Jacober.

Like Rothenberg, Jacober was always the first person to use his
own product. His business career began at the University of Rhode
Island in Kingston, where he made $10,000 marketing sportswear to
fraternities and sororities. It continued after college with a
T-shirt company in 1981. Then he formed SGI Inc., which mostly
printed canvas sports bags and was bringing in$29 million in annual
sales by 1991. While running SGI, he briefly owned a company that
manufactured life jackets, and another that made backyard water
slides.

Eventually SGI was sold, and Jacober used his $13 million in
proceeds to sail the Caribbean. But soon he was going stir-crazy
without a company to run. His next idea came from circumstances no
one would envy. Ocean Diagnostics Inc., which he started in 1995,
manufactured a home health test that allowed consumers to
self-diagnose various diseases and body function problems. In 1993,
Jacober had donated a kidney to his brother who'd had chronic
kidney failure. "The home test wouldn't have changed the
outcome, but it would have helped him diagnose [the problem]
sooner," says Jacober. "A year later, I was diagnosed
with bladder cancer--a home test would have revealed
that."

After Jacober sold Ocean Diagnostics, he created The Ocean
Group, a Providence, Rhode Island, business incubator designed to
shelter several of his ideas at once. Currently, Jacober is owner
or co-owner of five companies, which collectively brought in $10
million last year.

It can be a confusing arrangement. Jacober has made telephone
calls and used the wrong company's name. He used to give out
the wrong business cards until he created one that reads "The
Ocean Group" and lists the five companies underneath. Still,
he insists, "Staying somewhat disorganized is the secret to my
success. I like doing multiple things at one time--that's what
turns me on and challenges me."

So is all the work worth it? It depends. "It's
extraordinarily rewarding," says Jacober. "But you have
to be prepared to work hard and devote a huge portion of your life
to do this. It takes a toll, personally and physically. It takes
time away from your family and your friends and your life. You need
to be committed."

Still, serial entrepreneurship does get easier with experience.
Just ask Jacober. He doesn't flinch at the notion of having
created 20 or 30 companies by the time he retires. But he does
flinch at the thought of retirement: "I'll probably even
turn retirement into a business, if I can."

Carnegie, Jobs And Jordan

A look at serial entrepreneurs in history

Serial entrepreneurs aren't new, observes Lynne Pierson
Doti, director of the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and
Business Ethics at Chapman University in Orange, California. In
fact, they've been around for a long, long time.

Many of the first entrepreneurs were inventors. "Eli
Whitney invented the cotton gin," says Doti, "but
[it] was a financial disaster for him. Whitney had delays and
difficulties patenting it and even after it was patented, he
couldn't enforce the patent. He wasn't able to sell his
machines by the time he was producing." But he was more
successful with his next venture: "He introduced
interchangeable parts to gun manufacturing," she says.

Andrew Carnegie was another famous serial entrepreneur.
"Carnegie embarked on several money-making projects before
revolutionizing the steel industry and personally reinvented [his]
company several times in response to new market forces," says
Doti.

Serial entrepreneurship strikes even the most rich and famous of
people today, says Doti: "Steve Jobs, Michael Milken, Michael
Jordan and Warren Buffett couldn't retire even after their
names made the history books. It just isn't in their
nature."